Note to Broadcasters: Please find the attached soundbites in English by Freddy Sonakile.
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey delivers a devastating verdict on the ANC government’s handling of the North West economy.
The province’s official unemployment rate has jumped from 35.3% to 38.1% in just one quarter, an increase of 2.8 percentage points, among the largest increases recorded nationally. Even more alarming, North West now has a combined unemployment and potential labour force rate of 56.0%, the highest in South Africa.
That 56% figure tells the real story. It includes not only those officially unemployed but also people who want to work yet are no longer actively looking or are otherwise part of the potential labour force.
More than half of the province’s potential workforce is effectively locked out of meaningful economic participation.
And the economy is moving in the wrong direction. The North West shed 15,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2026, placing it among the provinces that recorded employment declines.
These are not merely statistics. They represent households losing income, businesses struggling to survive and people losing hope that there is a future for them in the province.
Yet what has the ANC government offered?
Another summit. Another strategy. Another task team. Another announcement.
Meanwhile, municipalities are failing, infrastructure is deteriorating, businesses face red tape, basic services remain unreliable and the provincial government continues to make excuses for an economy that is simply not creating enough jobs.
The irony is that the North West has everything it needs to succeed.
We have mining, agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and our strategic proximity to Gauteng. What we lack is a government capable of turning these advantages into sustained economic opportunity.
The problem is not a lack of potential. The problem is a lack of competent government.
The DA will take a fundamentally different approach.
We want a North West where municipalities work, infrastructure supports economic activity, businesses can operate without unnecessary political and bureaucratic obstacles, procurement is transparent, investors have confidence and small businesses are given room to grow.
Government should be an enabler of opportunity, not an obstacle to it.
The ANC has had decades to turn the province’s potential into prosperity. Instead, the latest Stats SA figures show a province on a continued decline.
And with the 2026 Local Government Elections approaching, voters have a clear choice.
They can continue with a government of summits, strategies and excuses, or they can vote for a competent, accountable government that understands that economic growth does not come from speeches; it comes from creating the conditions in which people and businesses can succeed.
The North West cannot afford another five years of managed decline.
38.1% unemployment.
56% combined rate.
15,000 jobs lost.
That is the ANC’s economic report card.
The DA is ready to change it.